RESEARCH ARTICLE

THE CAREER PATHS LESS (OR MORE) TRAVELED:

A SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF IT CAREER HISTORIES,
MOBILITY PATTERNS, AND CAREER SUCCESS1
Damien Joseph, Wai Fong Boh, and Soon Ang
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, SINGAPORE 639798
{adjoseph@ntu.edu.sg} {awfboh@ntu.edu.sg} {asang@ntu.edu.sg}

Sandra A. Slaughter
College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30303-0520 U.S.A.
{Sandra.slaughter@mgt.gatech.edu}

This paper examines the objective career histories, mobility patterns, and career success of 500 individuals
drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), who had worked in the information
technology workforce. Sequence analysis of career histories shows that careers of the IT workforce are more
diverse than the traditional view of a dual IT career path (technical versus managerial). This study reveals
a new career typology comprising three broad, distinct paths: IT careers; professional labor market (PLM)
careers; and secondary labor market (SLM) careers. Of the 500 individuals in the IT workforce, 173
individuals pursued IT careers while the remaining 327 individuals left IT for other high-status non-IT
professional jobs in PLM or lower-status, non-IT jobs in SLM careers. Findings from this study contribute to
refining the concept of “boundaryless” careers. By tracing the diverse trajectories of career mobility, we
enrich our understanding of how individuals construct boundaryless careers that span not only organizational
but also occupational boundaries. Career success did not differ in terms of average pay for individuals in IT
and PLM careers. By contrast, individuals in SLM careers attained the lowest pay. We conclude this study
with implications for future research and for the management of IT professionals’ careers.

Keywords: Management of IT human resources; longitudinal, careers, sequence analysis, IT profession

boundaryless, mobility

1
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— Traditionally, researchers have portrayed IT careers as com-
I took the one less traveled by, posed of two distinct paths: a technical IT career or a manag-
And that has made all the difference erial IT career (e.g. Chesebrough and Davis 1983; Kaiser
Robert Frost (1916, The Road Not Taken) 1983; Zabusky and Barley 1996). Individuals in technical IT
careers are characterized as holding deep commitment to the
technical orientation of the IT profession (Ginzberg and
Baroudi 1988) and choosing to remain in technical IT jobs for
1
Mike Gallivan was the accepting senior editor for this paper. Tom Ferratt the duration of their careers (Kaiser 1983). Such technical IT
served as the associate editor.
professionals work in multiple organizations over the course
The appendix for this paper is located in the “Online Supplements” section of their technical IT careers (Kaiser 1983). Technical IT
of the MIS Quarterly’s website (http://www.misq.org). professionals typically measure career success in terms of

MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2 pp. 427-452/June 2012 427

Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
accumulated technical accomplishments, expertise, and the
reputation for skill (Ginzberg and Baroudi 1988; Zabusky and
Barley 1996).
Individuals in managerial IT careers, on the other hand, are
characterized as holding to a managerial orientation (Ginzberg
and Baroudi 1988), moving from technical IT jobs to manag-
erial IT jobs, usually within an organization. Managerial IT
professionals typically measure career success in terms of
promotions attained within an organization (Zabusky and
Barley 1996). The assumption underlying both IT careers
(technical IT and managerial IT) is that individuals in these
careers will continue to remain within the IT profession for
the duration of their careers (Karahanna and Watson 2006).
In a closer reading of the IT careers literature, Ginzberg and
Baroudi (1988) noted that the empirical evidence indicates
that individuals’ careers in the IT workforce are comprised of
multiple organizations and occupations. This description of
careers as comprising multiple organizations and occupations
is consistent with the concept of a “boundaryless” career
(Greenhaus et al. 2008). A boundaryless career is composed
of a sequence of jobs that go beyond the boundaries of a
single employment setting (DeFillippi and Arthur 1996, p.
116). The boundaryless career is often contrasted with the
traditional career of an “organization man” that unfolds within
a single firm (Whyte 1956). This traditional career is typified
by individuals climbing a career ladder comprising of jobs
with increasing responsibility and status within an organi-
zation (Hall 1976; Rosenbaum 1979).
Following Ginzberg and Baroudi’s (1988) review of IT
careers and reconceptualization of careers as boundaryless
(DeFillippi and Arthur 1996), we propose that traditional por-
trayals of IT careers as having only two homogenous career
paths are unduly restrictive. IT careers have been buffeted by
drastic changes in the demand and supply of IT labor since
the 1970s (Ang and Slaughter 2000). In the 21st century,
rapid technological advancements coupled with market
pressures arising from globalization have forced organizations
to become leaner and less able to offer job security and life-
long employment (Ang and Slaughter 2000; Slaughter and
Ang 1996). In fact, research (e.g., Ituma and Simpson 2009)
has begun to notice that contemporary IT careers are indeed
boundaryless in nature—with IT professionals moving across
organizations, not bound to a single employer (Josefek and
Kauffman 2003; O'Mahony and Bechky 2006), or moving
across occupations, not bound to the IT profession (Reich and
Kaarst-Brown 1999, 2003).
The goals of this study, therefore, are to (1) identify and
describe the contemporary careers of individuals in the IT
workforce, (2) examine their mobility across occupations and
428 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
organizations within their subscribed careers, (3) differentiate
the profiles of individuals associated with a given career, and
(4) assess the objective career success associated with the
identified contemporary careers. By addressing these issues,
this paper espouses a more nuanced understanding of contem-
porary careers in the IT workforce compared to those
presented in current IT literature.
Figure 1 presents the overall heuristic model that guides the
theoretical foundations of this study, the data analysis, and the
discussion of the results. In the following sections, this study
first provides a discussion of the theoretical foundations of
careers in terms of the career paths and career mobility. This
study then expounds on the antecedents (i.e., individual
profiles) and consequences (i.e., objective career success)
associated with careers in the IT workforce. Specifically, we
discuss the profiles of individuals (i.e., the overall set of
personal attributes that are argued to characterize individuals
in career paths). We then focus on understanding objective
career success, in terms of pay as an external and observable
indicator of accomplishment (Feldman and Ng 2007).
Characterizing Careers in the
IT Workforce
A career is defined as ‘‘a sequence or combination of occu-
pational positions held during the course of a lifetime’’ (Super
1957, p. 286). The traditional career model prescribes that
careers progress in an orderly fashion and in sequential stages
within an occupation and organization (Levinson 1978; Super
1957). Yet, scholars question the applicability of this tradi-
tional career model in a work environment where careers are
increasingly shaped by multiple employers (Arthur and Rous-
seau 1996; Sullivan 1999) and occupational communities
(Ginzberg and Baroudi 1988; Van Maanen and Barley 1984).
Consequently, scholars have concluded that the traditional
career model is an exception rather than the norm (Arthur and
Rousseau 1996; Sullivan 1999), labeling nontraditional
careers as “boundaryless careers” and “protean careers”
(Arthur 1994; Hall and Mirvis 1995).
Research describes boundaryless careers and protean careers
as “overlapping but distinct” concepts (Briscoe and Hall
2006a, p. 6). A protean career is self-directed, proactively
managed, and driven by personally meaningful values and
goals (Briscoe and Hall 2006a). It is depicted by psycho-
logical mobility, referring to one’s perceived capacity to enact
job changes (Sullivan and Arthur 2006). Psychological
mobility, its antecedents and outcomes are interpreted from
the career actor’s perspective, “who may perceive a boundary-
less future regardless of structural constraints” (Arthur and
Rousseau 1996, p. 6).

Characterizing Careers
Individual in the IT Workforce by:
Profiles - Career Paths
- Career Mobility
Figure 1. The Heuristic Model Guiding This Study
In comparison, boundaryless careers are described in terms of
interorganizational mobility; that is, job changes “across the
boundaries of separate employers” (Greenhaus et al. 2008, p.
280). It is depicted by both psychological and physical
boundary-crossing (Greenhaus et al. 2008). Physical mobility
refers to actual job changes across structural or institutional
boundaries such as jobs, firms, or occupations (Briscoe and
Hall 2006b; Sullivan and Arthur 2006). In essence, physical
mobility is conceptualized as an objective career change while
psychological mobility is conceptualized as a subjective
career change (Sullivan and Arthur 2006).
IT research has predominantly examined the psychological
aspects of IT careers (since Ginzberg and Baroudi 1988).
Consequently, research on the physical boundary-crossing
behaviors in IT professionals’ careers remains scarce (Ang
and Slaughter 2000). A recent review of the broader bound-
aryless careers literature also calls for research examining the
physical components of boundaryless careers, its antecedents,
and their consequences because psychological mobility may
not be directly correlated with the physical, boundaryless
notions of career mobility (Greenhaus et al. 2008).
Responding to these calls, this paper investigates the physical,
boundaryless career mobility of individuals in the IT work-
force. As highlighted by Greenhaus et al. (2008, p. 289), it is
critical for researchers to “clarify the meaning and measure-
ment of boundarylessness” by identifying different forms of
nontraditional career mobility. Prior research predominantly
conceptualizes and operationalizes boundaryless careers as
interorganizational mobility. This paper takes an initial step
of broadening this conceptualization and operationalization by
also considering mobility within and across occupational and
organizational boundaries.
In broadening the conceptualization and operationalization of
boundaryless careers, research advocates analyzing the types
and timing of career mobility revealed in individuals’ work
histories (Greenhaus et al. 2008). Accordingly, we utilize the
information available from individuals’ work histories to
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
Objective Career
Success
characterize the careers in terms of (1) the types of career
paths and (2) the types and timing of career mobility within a
career path. By doing so, we obtain a comprehensive under-
standing of boundaryless careers in the IT workforce.
Career Paths
Career paths are models or prototypes characterizing the
career sequences of a group of individuals. A career sequence
depicts the succession of occupational jobs within an indi-
vidual’s work history. In their seminal paper, Abbott and
Hrycak (1990) analyzed the career sequences of German
musicians in the 17th to 19th centuries. They described four
major career paths (i.e., organists, court musicians, church
musicians, and others) as musicians advanced from jobs lower
in the hierarchy of the musical establishment to that of the
music director or Kapellmeister. Blair-Loy (1999) added to
this stream of research by examining the career sequences of
women in the finance occupation. She identified two broad
career paths: one characterized by orderly advancement up
corporate career ladders within firms, and the other charac-
terized by “disorderly career shifts between disparate fields
and among several different organizations” (p. 1362). In
another study of women in the workforce, Huang et al. (2007)
and Huang and Sverke (2007) examined the career sequences
of a cohort of Swedish women to identify two broad career
paths: one conforming to traditional notions of upward
mobility within an organization, and the other marked by exits
from and reentry to the workforce for family reasons.
Adding to the above stream of research, this study analyses
the career sequences of a cohort of individuals in the IT
workforce. As noted earlier, prior research has identified two
divergent career paths for IT professionals: a technical IT
career and a managerial IT career (e.g., Chesebrough and
Davis 1983; Kaiser 1983). However, given the increased
heterogeneity in the IT workforce and the volatility of the IT
work environment, it is important to examine anew whether
contemporary IT professionals still follow traditional career
paths or subscribe to other types of career paths.
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 429
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
Career Mobility
As noted above, this study broadens the conceptualization and
operationalization of boundaryless careers by examining the
types and timing of career mobility revealed in work histories.
Based on the established career literature, this section dis-
cusses the various types of career mobility that comprise a
career sequence and their timing within a career path.
Types of Career Mobility
Individuals may construct careers by moving across organi-
zational or occupational boundaries (Greenhaus et al. 2008)
or both simultaneously. Examining occupational mobility or
organizational mobility alone presents a limited aspect of
one’s career. Organizational mobility has been frequently
studied, as evidenced by the extant organizational turnover
literature (e.g., Griffeth et al. 2000; Joseph et al. 2007), but
this literature rarely examines individuals’ destinations after
they leave their organization (Kirschenbaum and Weisberg
2002). Consequently, there is a lack of understanding of
whether those who change jobs across organizations remain
within or leave their occupation.
Within an organization, the predominant focus of research has
been on hierarchical mobility up a career ladder (Rosenfeld
1992). Such studies typically employ organizationally based
tournament models (i.e., reaching a certain organizational
level by a certain age or within a certain period of organi-
zational tenure; Sullivan 1999) to predict career moves to the
next higher rung on the corporate career ladder (Rosenbaum
1979). Such research, however, ignores the possibility that
individuals may develop and progress in their careers via
lateral moves within an organization. In these instances,
moving to a new occupation within an organization does not
necessarily reflect a promotion or a loss of a tournament;
rather, it provides new opportunities for individual devel-
opment (Greenhaus et al. 2008). Kaiser (1983) noted that
some IT professionals held relatively higher organizational
attachment and readily moved into functional jobs from IT
jobs. She concluded that mobility to functional jobs might be
motivated by restricted career opportunities within IT.
Reich and Kaarst-Brown (1999) provided an alternative
explanation for IT professionals’ mobility to functional jobs.
They uncovered organizational initiatives that moved IT
professionals out of IT jobs into functional jobs when job
opportunities became available within an organization. Such
moves to non-IT jobs are facilitated by the pervasiveness of
IT in an organization and by the firm-specific skills gained by
IT professionals when developing information systems for
non-IT functional areas (Reich and Kaarst-Brown 2003). In
430 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
contrast to organizational initiatives to move IT professionals
into line functions, Moore et al. (2001) report on initiatives by
businesses, government, and universities to ease the entry into
IT jobs from non-IT jobs and to reduce the time to proficiency
in IT. These initiatives were introduced when the IT industry
faced an acute shortage of IT professionals.
Given the possibilities for both organizational and occupa-
tional mobility in the IT workforce, this study examines three
types of career mobility: (1) movements across organizations
within occupations, (2) movements across occupations within
organizations, and (3) movements across both occupations
and organizations. By examining these types of career
mobility, we gain insights into whether IT careers are indeed
boundaryless across organizations as well as occupations.
Timing of Career Mobility
In addition, we investigate the timing of different types of
career moves within individuals’ career paths. For example,
do individuals move early in their careers or late in their
careers, or do they exhibit a steady rate of mobility throughout
their careers? A longitudinal perspective of careers provides
insights into the timing of career moves (Huang and Sverke
2007) which could not otherwise be obtained from cross-
sectional approaches (Bailyn 2004).
Careers are increasingly recognized to be nonlinear, without
clearly delineated career stages and predictable timing
(Abbott 2003). Instead, individuals’ careers may exhibit
different rates of career mobility at different points in time.
Indeed, Abbot and Hrycak (1990) urge researchers to examine
the pattern of job changes that form a work history because
individuals continually plan and structure their careers over
time. Accordingly, we add to the careers literature by
examining the timing of occupational and organizational
mobility over the span of individuals’ careers.
Antecedents and Consequences
of Career Paths
In this section, we examine the profiles of individuals as
antecedents characterizing individuals in career paths. We
then focus on objective career success as a consequence of
subscribing to a particular career path.
Individual Profiles
Individual profiles comprise a set of attributes that are best
understood by the analysis of overall patterns of attributes

rather than by analysis of specific attributes (Greenwood and
Hinings 1993). In essence, individual profiles present a
holistic perspective of attributes that describe individuals in
different career paths. Prior research has shown that the
individual attributes of gender and human capital investments
strongly influence individuals’ career decisions and oppor-
tunities in the workforce (Feldman and Ng 2007; Griffeth et
al. 2000; Josefek and Kauffman 2003; Joseph et al. 2007).
Therefore, we focus on these sets of individual attributes in
describing individuals in different career paths.
There is an extensive body of research examining the careers
of females. The research suggests that females, compared to
males, are more likely to pursue a boundaryless careers for its
self-directedness and for its attainment of personally meaning-
ful goals (Mainiero and Sullivan 2005). The research on
career paths of females also tends to support the notion that
females are more likely than males to leave the workforce
either temporarily or permanently for family reasons (Blair-
Loy 1999; Huang et al. 2007; Huang and Sverke 2007).
Moreover, the labor market tends to be segmented by gender
with an overrepresentation of females in secondary labor
market jobs such as clerical and production-oriented jobs.
Secondary labor market jobs are characterized by their
relatively lower status, limited opportunities for promotion,
autonomy, or the ability to independently bargain for
favorable pay (Kalleberg and Sorensen 1979; Piore 1975). By
comparison, males tend to congregate in the technical and
managerial jobs, which are characterized by their relatively
higher status, opportunities for promotion, autonomy, and
favorable pay (Rosenfeld 1992; Tomaskovic-Devey and
Skaggs 2002).
Within male dominated occupations, females report experi-
encing barriers to career advancement (Goodman et al. 2003;
Stroh et al. 1996) and to mobility within the external labor
market in search of alternative jobs (Keith and McWilliams
1999). As the IT workforce tends to be male dominated
(Information Technology Association of America 2005),
several studies have documented the negative career experi-
ences of females in the IT workforce. These negative career
experiences include stereotyping of and hostility toward
females (Ahuja 2002), restricted career advancement oppor-
tunities (Leventman 2007), and a lack of informal networks
to obtain information about alternative employment oppor-
tunities (Hartmann et al. 1986; Margolis and Fisher 2002).
Another key factor influencing individuals’ careers is human
capital. Human capital refers to individuals’ productive com-
petencies that result from accumulating knowledge, skills, and
experience (Becker 1975). These competencies vary in their
level of specificity from general to specific. General human
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
capital is transferable across domains (e.g., across jobs,
organizations, industries, and professions) while specific
human capital is constrained to a particular domain. Invest-
ments in general human capital facilitate career mobility as
the accumulated human capital may be productively utilized
in another occupation or organization (Fugate et al. 2004).
On the other hand, investments in specific human capital
decrease one’s career mobility as changing an occupation
and/or organization would entail a forfeit of the specific
human capital that has been accumulated in a different occu-
pation and/or organization (Feldman and Ng 2007; Joseph et
al. 2011).
Objective Career Success
The career paths that individuals follow have implications for
their objective career success. Prior research provides evi-
dence that career paths conforming to traditional notions of
upward mobility within an organization are associated with
higher levels of pay (Blair-Loy 1999; Huang et al. 2007;
Huang and Sverke 2007). In this study, we examine one key
dimension of an individual’s objective career success: pay.
Individuals’ career decisions often have a significant impact
on their pay, because the returns to individuals’ accumulated
human capital may differ depending on their career decisions
(Mithas and Krishnan 2008; Parent 2000), and individuals
may be compensated differently because of the nature of their
jobs (Combs and Skill 2003; Gerhart and Milkovich 1990).
Human capital theory suggests that obtaining a fit between
one’s human capital investment and the job requirements
generates rewards in terms of higher pay (Ang et al. 2002;
Slaughter et al. 2007). For example, if individuals possess
general human capital, moving frequently across domains
may not entail a decrease in pay (Mithas and Krishnan 2008).
On the other hand, if individuals have accumulated
occupation-specific human capital, such as data modeling and
programming skills specific to the IT profession, leaving the
IT profession will result in a depreciation of their stock of
human capital, which will be reflected as lower pay. In addi-
tion, if individuals have accumulated firm-specific human
capital such as knowledge of an organization’s policies, they
may find higher rewards by staying within the organization.
The nature of the job held may also influence one’s level of
pay due to the roles performed, responsibilities held, or power
wielded (Combs and Skill 2003). For example, Gerhart and
Milkovich (1990) reason that managers are compensated more
than others lower in the organizational hierarchy because
managers are perceived to have a greater impact on organi-
zational performance compared to non-managers. Similarly,
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 431
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
a study of managerial pay (Carpenter and Wade 2002) shows
that managers are likely to receive higher pay by virtue of
their responsibilities, experience, and position. As such,
organizations tend to pay more for managers compared to
those in technical or staff positions (Cappelli and Cascio
1991). Accordingly, we compare the pay of individuals in
different career paths as a means of evaluating their objective
career success.
Method
This study adopts an inductive and quantitative approach to
examine the career paths of individuals in the IT workforce.
Identifying career sequences requires analyses not just at
single points in time but across individuals’ work histories
(Abbott 2003). Accordingly, we employ an inductive ap-
proach to understand the complexities of individuals’ career
changes across time and employ quantitative analyses to ad-
dress the generalizability of conclusions to the IT workforce.
The analytical approach here differs from the approaches
employed in prior studies on IT careers (Chesebrough and
Davis 1983; Kaiser 1983; Tanniru 1983) in that a formal,
replicable analysis of career sequences is conducted on a
relatively large sample, using optimal matching (a sequence
analysis technique) and cluster analyses.
We also make use of systematic coding strategies to describe
individuals’ career sequences. This study is also atypical in
that we do not test empirical models identifying variables that
explain or predict the career mobility or the career paths to
which individuals will subscribe. Instead, we make use of a
series of statistical tests to verify that the conclusions reached
are indeed statistically significant. This inductive and quanti-
tative approach, we believe, is the most appropriate to
examine the complexities and nuances of career sequences in
a relatively large sample of individuals in the IT workforce.
Data
We analyze actual work history data of a sample of respon-
dents drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
1979 (NLSY79; see Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008). The
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began the NLSY79 program
in 1979 by surveying a nationally representative sample of
12,686 respondents who were between 14 and 21 years old
(as of January 1, 1979) and residing in the United States of
America. The NLSY79 continues to track these respondents
periodically over time. In each wave of data collection,
respondents are surveyed using structured interview techni-
432 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
ques that collect detailed data on a broad range of topics
including work history, job duration, and occupation.
For this study, we used the most recent NLSY79 data set
released (as of 2008) by the BLS containing respondents’
work histories from 1979 to 2006. As the respondents have
yet to report retirement and their careers have yet to be com-
pleted, our data are right censored. Nevertheless, our data
captures a significant portion of respondents’ careers from
their start between the ages of 18 and 21 years to the end of
this study (as of 2006), between the ages of 42 and 49 years.
Moreover, this data set is ideal for the analysis of careers as
it contains detailed career related information on jobs held and
job destinations following a career move, thus allowing us to
construct career sequences from the beginning of respondents’
careers.
Sample
We selected a sample of respondents from the NLSY79 data
set using the following criteria: (1) respondents be at least 18
years and have attained a high school diploma or its equi-
valent; (2) respondents have worked in a full-time IT job for
at least one continuous year anytime after entering the work-
force between 1979 and 2006; and (3) respondents provide at
least five contiguous years’ worth of workforce data. The
U.S. Youth Employment Provisions of the Fair Labor Stan-
dards Act (FLSA) restricts the types of employment for
persons under the age of 18. Accordingly, we applied the “18
years and older” criterion to include respondents who were
able to work in any job. We also considered respondents to
begin their careers after attaining a high school diploma (or its
equivalent) to avoid capturing transient vacation or part-time
IT jobs.
Consistent with the BLS definition of a full-time, permanent
job, incumbents in IT jobs were included in our sample if they
had worked “for more than 35 hours a week” for “one con-
tinuous year in a job” (see Polivka 1996). This criterion
ensured the selection of respondents who have regarded IT
jobs as a full-time permanent job and not just as a temporary
job.2 It has been argued that individuals in temporary jobs are
unlikely to undergo the same cognitive processes with regard
to their careers as individuals in full-time. permanent jobs
(Hulin et al. 1985).
2
We conducted sensitivity analyses using a criterion of two years in an IT job
in selecting respondents for inclusion in our sample. The results from this
analysis are consistent with our original results.

We chose to exclude respondents who provided less than five
years of workforce data because we required a sufficiently
long career sequence for each respondent to compare the
similarity of one career sequence adequately with another.3
After applying these criteria, our final sample comprised 500
respondents (or 3.94 percent) out of 12,686 respondents in the
data set.
Coding
To obtain a career sequence for each respondent in our study
data set, we followed Abbott and Hrycak’s (1990) approach
by expressing each respondent’s work history as a sequence
of jobs. We used one calendar year as the basic time interval
in the career sequence. Respondents who switched jobs with-
in a given calendar year were coded for their dominant job in
that year. The dominant job refers to the job that the respon-
dent held for the most amount of time (and for at least 13
weeks) in a calendar year (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008).
The work history data in the NLSY79 contains detailed
information about jobs held by respondents in each year. Jobs
are coded, described, and categorized according to the Occu-
pation Classification System (OCS; U.S. Census Bureau
1971, 2000) which distinguishes between 12 major job cate-
gories (e.g., professional, technical, managerial, clerical,
sales, etc.) and identifies 417 separate subcategories (e.g.,
accountants, bank officers, chemical engineers, etc.). The
OCS was refined in 2000 and 2002 to reflect the proliferation
of jobs and job titles in the U.S. labor market. IT jobs coded
by OCS include “Computer and Information Systems
Managers,” “Computer Systems Analysts,” and “Database
Administrators.” A full list of IT jobs and their respective
OCS codes are presented in Table 1.
Using these OCS codes, we noted each respondent’s job in
each year from 1979 to 2006 using the appropriate coding
scheme in force at the time of data collection. For ease of
analyses, we recoded jobs held by respondents into one of 13
broad job categories presented in Table 2. All non-
managerial IT jobs codes (in Table 1) were recoded as
technical IT jobs (i.e., “I”) while Computer and Information
Systems Manager jobs were recoded as IT managerial jobs
(i.e., “M”).4 All non-IT job codes in our sample were mapped
3
We conducted sensitivity analyses by increasing the contiguous workforce
data criterion to “at least 10 contiguous years’ worth of workforce data.” The
results from this analysis are consistent with our original results.
4
We made a reasonable assumption that for all individuals identified as IT
managers in the OCS 2000/2002 codes, all of their prior contiguous jobs with
Code 220 (Office Manager, not classified elsewhere) and Code 245
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
onto the remaining non-IT job categories (e.g., professional,
technical, managerial, clerical, sales, etc.) and their codes (in
brackets) as follows: non-IT manager (“G”), non-IT profes-
sional (“P”), technical administration and support (“J”), tech-
nician (“T”), sales (“S”), clerical (“C”); craft, production and
service (“O”), military (“Y”), in school (“X”), unemployed
(“U”), and out of the workforce (“Z”).
We arranged respondents’ careers into sequences of coded
jobs from the point at which the individual entered the
workforce. The average length of career sequences for the
individuals in our sample is 22.2 years (SD = 5.8 years), with
the maximum and minimum lengths at 28.0 years and 5.0
years, respectively.5 For example, consider the following
career sequence for a respondent i: P P P P P P P P I I I I I I
M M. The length of respondent i’s career is 16 years. On
entering the workforce, respondent i spent eight years in a
non-IT professional job, then spent six years in a technical IT
job, after which she moved into a managerial IT job for two
years.
Analysis
We employed Abbott and Hrycak’s (1990) sequence analytic
approach to identify distinct career paths in our data. This
approach comprises two separate analyses: an optimal
matching analysis of career sequences to establish the inter-
sequence distances between all pairs of career sequences in
the study data set and a cluster analysis that uses the inter-
sequence distances to group career sequences into meaningful
clusters (i.e., career paths).
Optimal Matching Analysis
Optimal matching analysis (Sankoff and Kruskal 1983) is a
statistical method that yields a measure of resemblance
between pairs of career sequences. The technique calculates
similarity scores between pairs of career sequences and
measures the extent to which two career sequences differ by
counting the number of substitutions, insertions, and deletions
needed to transform one sequence into the other. By allo-
cating costs to substitutions, insertions and deletions, pairs of
(Managers and Administrators, not classified elsewhere) should be coded as
IT management as well.
5
The average length of career sequences for males and females are not
significantly different (t = -1.53, df = 452.52, p = 0.172). The average length
of career sequences for males in our sample is 21.8 years (SD = 6.0 years),
and the average length of career sequences for females is 22.6 (SD = 5.5).
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 433
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Table 1. Occupation Classification Codes and their Corresponding Jobs in the IT Profession
Jobs 1970 Code 2000 Code 2002 Code
Computer and Information Systems Manager 11 110
Computer Systems Analyst/Computer Scientist 004 100 1000
Computer Programmer 003 101 1010
Computer Specialist 005
Computer Software Engineer 102 1020
Computer Support Specialist 104 1040
Database Administrator 106 1060
Network and Computer Systems Administrator 110 1100
Network Systems and Data Communications Analyst 111 1110
Computer Hardware Engineer 140 1400

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics “NLSY79 Attachment 3: 1970, 1980 & 2000/2002 Census Industrial & Occupation Classification Codes and
1977 Department Of Defense Enlisted Occupational Codes,” 2006.

Table 2. Job Codes and Definitions

Jobs Code Definition
IT I Technical IT job (i.e., systems analyst; programmer; software and hardware engineer; IT
support specialist; database, network and systems administrator; network and data commu-
nication analyst; computer specialist)
M Managerial IT job (i.e., computer and information systems manager)
Non-IT C Clerical job (e.g., clerk, secretary, office and administrative support worker)
G Non-IT managerial job (e.g., general manager, financial manager, sales manager)
J Technical administration and support job (e.g., computer/peripheral equipment operator, data
entry clerk; computer, office equipment or automated teller repairer)
O Craft, production and service job (e.g., protective service, food and beverage worker,
entertainer, janitor, service worker, laborer)
P Non-IT professional job (e.g., accountant, human resource executive, financial analyst, legal
professional, engineer, psychologist, scientist, healthcare professional, teacher)
S Sales job (e.g., retail salesperson, insurance sales agent, advertising sales agent)
T Technician (e.g., engineering technician, healthcare technician, chemical technician)
Out of U Unemployed (i.e., is actively searching for employment during a job gap)
Civilian X Enrolled in School
Workforce Y Military service
Z Out of workforce (i.e., is not actively searching for work during a job gap)

sequences can be compared, and sequences that “cost” the
least to be transformed into another are considered the most
similar (Abbott and Forrest 1986). Once all sequences are
analyzed, the outcome is a matrix detailing how similar each
sequence is to all others in a given data set.
We use the optimal matching algorithm in ClustalG (Wilson
2002) to calculate the similarity scores for all career
sequences (Wilson et al. 1999). The similarity scores are
rescaled into distance scores by dividing the similarity scores
by 100 and subtracting from 1. The resulting distance matrix
(dimensions: 500 rows by 500 columns) is then analyzed
using cluster analysis to empirically group the various career
sequences into clusters (Hair et al. 1995). Based on a sensi-
tivity analysis of various insertion, deletion and substitution
cost matrices and on the recommendations of Abbott and his

434 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012


colleagues (Abbott and Forrest 1986; Abbott and Hrycak
1990) and of Sabherwal and Robey (1993), we set the
insertion, deletion and substitution costs to the same value
across all pairs of job codes. The rationale for doing this is
that the cluster analysis algorithm is not sensitive to variations
in distance matrices derived from different cost matrices.6
Cluster Analysis
We then conducted two sets of cluster analyses on the
distance matrix derived from optimal matching analysis to
identify distinct career paths in our data. First, a hierarchical
agglomerative clustering technique was used to analyze the
distance matrix derived from the optimal matching analysis
and to group career sequences into “natural groups” (Alden-
derfer and Blashfield 1984, p. 16) of career paths in the IT
workforce. Specifically, we employed the two-step cluster
analysis procedure in SPSS to analyze the distance matrix by
specifying the 500 columns to represent the clustering
variables and to determine the number of viable clusters in the
data. The two-step clustering algorithm is well suited to
analyze large data sets in which there are no predetermined
numbers of clusters.
Accordingly, we did not limit the two-step clustering algo-
rithm to produce a specific number of clusters but allowed it
to determine, automatically, up to a maximum of 15 clusters
(the default in SPSS). The clustering algorithm derives the
candidate number of clusters by comparing model AIC fit
statistics (Akaike’s Information Criterion; Akaike 1974)
across different clustering solutions. The cluster solution that
best fits the data is indicated by the greatest ratio of change in
the AIC fit statistic between a cluster solution with n clusters
and a two-cluster solution (Bozdogan 1987; Norušis 2008).
The AIC fit index indicated that a three cluster solution best
fits the data.
6
Although substituting one occupation with another in a career sequence
should intuitively incur costs, Monte Carlo studies (Abbott and Hrycak 1990)
find that drastically different substitution costs for occupations all result in
“overwhelming similarities” in cluster memberships (p. 164). As such,
Abbott and Hrycak conclude that the cluster analysis “seems to behave
robustly with variation in substitution costs” and that “differences in minor
analytic decisions are unlikely to drastically change results” (p. 164). Our
sensitivity analyses using different substitution costs results in an intra-class
correlation of 1.0 (p < 0.001), indicating perfect consistency in the cluster
memberships across different substitution scenarios. For example, we con-
sidered scenarios where a change from an IT job to a non-IT job would cost
more than transiting from a non-IT job to another non-IT job. As this and
other scenarios produced identical cluster memberships, we used the same
relative costs as Abbott and Hrycak.
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
Second, we assessed the robustness of the results of the
hierarchical agglomeration by reanalyzing the distance matrix
with a nonhierarchical cluster analysis. Specifically, we
employed a K-means clustering algorithm in SPSS and
specified that three clusters be formed. The level of agree-
ment in the resulting cluster memberships of the hierarchical
and nonhierarchical clustering algorithms was very high
(Cohen’s kappa = 0.93, p < 0.001), suggesting near perfect
agreement (Landis and Koch 1977) across the two clustering
algorithms.
Results
In this section, we report our results according to the heuristic
model that guided our study (Figure 1). The following sec-
tions present the career paths identified from the analyses of
career sequences, and the types and timings of career mobility
from the analyses of movements across organizational and
occupational boundaries. We then report our findings on the
antecedents and consequences of career paths.
Career Paths
The sequence analysis of work histories reveals that there are
three types of career paths in the IT workforce. Table 3
presents exemplars of career sequences for each career path.
Table 4 provides the descriptive statistics showing the extent
to which each occupation is represented in each career path.
The first cluster, which we label “Information Technology
(IT) Career,” comprises 173 individuals (34.6 percent of the
sample). From Table 3, we see that individuals in this career
path, on average, enter the IT profession at a relatively early
stage of their careers, after some non-IT work experience (3.9
years, SD = 4.6 years). These individuals tend to remain
within the IT profession for the remaining duration of their
careers or move into a managerial IT position at a later point
in time.
The remaining two clusters include individuals who work in
IT jobs for a significantly smaller proportion of their work
histories. The second cluster, labeled “Professional Labor
Market (PLM) Career,” is composed of 147 individuals (29.4
percent of the sample) who typically enter IT jobs at a rela-
tively early stage of their careers after some non-IT work
experience (5.0 years, SD = 4.8 years). Most of these indi-
viduals (95.2 percent) exit IT jobs after about two years of IT
work experience (2.3 years, SD = 2.9 years). Individuals in
this career path spend most of their careers in non-IT profes-
sional (27.4 percent) or non-IT managerial (16.9 percent)
jobs.
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 435
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Table 3. Exemplars of Career Sequences of Individuals†

Clusters ID Sequence
1 I I I I X X X X I I I I I I I I I I I
Information 2 P I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
Technology (IT) 3 P P P P I I I I I O O I I I I I
Career 4 S I I T P C T I I I I P P P I I I
(N=173; 34.6%) 5 C O I I I I I I I I M M M M M M M M
6 O O O O C G G I I I M M M M M M M M M M M
7 C G P I C C C C C C C C C C C C G G P P G P
Professional 8 T P P P P I T P Z Z Z Z P P P
Labor Market 9 O X C O G P C P G C C C G G G P P I
(PLM) Career 10 X I I I S S P S P G G G G G G G S S
(N=147; 29.4%) 11 P P P P O P I S S S G G G G G G G G
12 P P P P P P P P I G G G G G G G G G G
13 S O O I I I I I I I I I I I O O O
Secondary Labor 14 C C O C O O G G O G U U X I I I I I
Market (SLM) 15 C C O C C C J J O J J J J J J J J J J I I I
Career 16 C C C C C C C C C G C C C I I I C C
(N=180; 36.0%) 17 C U Z S C G C C I O O O G C C C
18 O O O Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y X X X I
†
See Table 2 for detailed meanings of codes. I: IT; M: IT Manager; C: Clerical; G: Non-IT Manager; J: Technical Admin & Support; O: Craft,
Production, and Service; P: Non-IT Professional; S: Sales; T: Technician; U: Unemployed; X: In School; Y: Military Service; Z: Out of Workforce.

Table 4. Mean Proportion of Work History for Each Job Within Each Career Sequence
SLM
Jobs F
IT Career PLM Career Career
IT Jobs
Technical IT I 51.0% 12.8% 15.0% 284.88***
Managerial IT M 7.6% 0.1% 0.0% 46.63***
Non-IT Jobs
Non-IT Manager G 2.7% 16.9% 4.1% 82.64***
Non-IT Professional P 6.3% 27.4% 3.6% 142.70***
Clerical C 4.2% 10.0% 20.2% 42.84***
Technical Administration & Support J 2.3% 0.8% 8.4% 21.69***
Craft, Production and Service O 5.1% 6.0% 20.6% 57.74***
Sales S 2.0% 4.5% 3.7% 4.90***
Technicians T 1.2% 3.9% 4.9% 8.06***
Out of Civilian Workforce
Unemployed U 0.5% 0.5% 1.1% 3.93***
In School X 14.8% 14.2% 6.7% 27.80***
Military Service Y 1.4% 0.6% 8.8% 22.26***
Out of Workforce Z 1.0% 2.2% 2.9% 3.55*
Length of Sequence (years) Mean 21.61 21.82 23.07 3.26*
SD 5.93 5.53 5.86
MANOVA: Hotelling’s T = 3.458, F(26, 968) = 64.365***; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001

436 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012


The term professional labor market is adapted from the labor
market segmentation literature distinguishing between dif-
ferent types of labor markets (Althauser and Kalleberg 1981),
which define the boundaries within which individuals develop
careers. The firm internal labor market, for example, defines
the firm as the labor market boundary as one’s career progres-
sion occurs within a single firm. The PLM cluster includes
individuals who spend a significant amount of their time
moving within and between associated professional and
managerial occupations, perhaps to explore and build general
expertise (Wholey 1985). We thus label this cluster the
“Professional Labor Market Career,” where one’s career is
bounded by other non-IT professional and non-IT managerial
occupations and where career progression involves movement
within and across two or more associated professional
occupations, not necessarily confined to a single employer
(Wholey 1985).
The third cluster, which we label as “Secondary Labor Market
(SLM) Career,” is composed of 180 individuals (36.0 percent
of sample). In contrast to the first two groups, individuals in
this third cluster tend to enter IT jobs at a later stage of their
careers after accumulating a significant amount of non-IT
work experience (10.8 years, SD = 6.6 years). Like the
individuals in PLM careers, individuals in SLM careers stay
for a relatively short period in IT jobs (2.7 years, SD = 2.7
years). Unlike the individuals in PLM careers, however,
individuals in SLM careers tend to work in occupations that
are lower in economic status when they are not in the IT
profession. The average Total Socioeconomic Index (TSEI;
Hauser and Warren 1997)7 for the SLM career is 40.10 (SD =
5.05), which is significantly lower than the average TSEI of
the PLM career (51.08, SD = 5.85; t = 18.21, p < 0.001) and
the IT career (54.77, SD = 5.41; t = 26.33, p < 0.001). Indi-
viduals in SLM careers tend to spend more of their time in
clerical (20.2 percent), craft (20.6 percent), military (8.8
percent), or technical administration and support (8.4 percent)
types of positions.
The label of this group, “Secondary Labor Market Career,”
draws upon the concept of secondary labor market defined in
the labor market segmentation literature (Althauser and
Kalleberg 1981). SLM careers are typified by lower-tier jobs
that tend to offer little to individuals in terms of status,
opportunities for promotion, autonomy, or the ability to inde-
pendently bargain for favorable pay (Kalleberg and Sorensen
1979; Piore 1975).
7
The TSEI summarizes the prestige and economic status of an occupation
relative to others (Hauser and Warren 1997). The TSEI is indicated by the
education required and the earnings attained in each occupation. Higher
TSEI scores reflect occupations possessing higher levels of prestige and
economic standing.
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
Career Mobility
Although the previous analyses provided insights into the
career paths that characterize individuals in the IT workforce,
the analyses were restricted to only occupational mobility. As
highlighted earlier, a boundaryless career may be boundary-
less both across occupations and across organizations. How-
ever, prior research has yet to examine whether a career that
appears boundaryless across occupations may still be bounded
within organizations, or vice versa. To provide a more com-
prehensive understanding of boundaryless careers, we
examine individuals’ career mobility across both occupational
and organizational boundaries.
Types of Career Mobility
As individuals may move across occupational and/or
organizational boundaries, we identified three unique forms
of career mobility (Figure 2): (1) occupation only mobility,
referring to a job change from one occupation to another
within the same organization; (2) organization only mobility,
referring to a job change from one organization to another
within the same occupation; and (3) occupation and organi-
zation mobility, referring to a job change occurring across
both occupations and organizations simultaneously.
Figure 2 shows the total distribution of career mobility along
occupational and organizational boundaries. Out of the 3,149
career moves made by individuals in our sample, 2,365 (74.5
percent) were across occupational boundaries. Out of the
2,346 occupational changes, 1,508 (64.3 percent) occupa-
tional changes took place within organizations. Only 803
(25.5 percent) of all career moves involved changing organi-
zations but not occupations.
Table 5 provides further analysis of the average frequency
with which the three types of occupational and organizational
mobility occurred across the different career paths. Table 5
further affirms that the individuals in our sample change
occupations more often than they change organizations (4.74
versus 3.29 times; t = 10.94, df = 499; p < 0.001).
Figure 3 provides a comparison of the average career mobility
across the three careers in the IT workforce. Individuals in IT
careers are significantly more likely to change organizations
within an occupation, compared to individuals in PLM (t =
3.47, df = 318, p < 0.001) and SLM (t = 3.74, df = 351, p <
0.001) careers. Further, individuals in IT careers are signi-
ficantly less likely to change occupations, compared to
individuals in PLM careers (Table 5: 6.02; SD = 2.86) and
SLM (Table 5: 5.40; SD = 2.67) careers. Taken together,
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 437
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Occupation and
Organization
n = 838
( 26.61%)

Occupation
Only
n = 1508
(47.89%)

Organization
Only
n = 803
(25.50%)

Figure 2. Occurrences of Career Moves in the Sample

Table 5. Mean Career Mobility Within and Across Career Paths

IT Career PLM SLM Total F

Career Career

Occupation Only Mean (SD) 1.89 ( 1.85 ) 4.06 ( 2.31 ) 3.24 ( 2.37 ) 3.02 ( 2.35 ) 40.77***
Mobility

Organization Only Mean (SD) 1.97 ( 1.58 ) 1.41 ( 1.30 ) 1.39 ( 1.37 ) 1.60 ( 1.45 ) 8.94***
Mobility

Occupation and Mean (SD) 1.05 ( 1.12 ) 1.94 ( 1.42 ) 2.07 ( 1.44 ) 1.68 (1.41) 29.89***
Organization Mobility

Total Career Mobility Mean (SD) 4.91 ( 2.74 ) 7.41 ( 3.06 ) 6.71 ( 3.00 ) 6.29 (3.11) 31.87***

Total Number of Mean (SD) 2.98 (2.44) 6.02 (2.86) 5.40 (2.67) 4.47 (2.95) 59.075***
Occupations

Total Number of Mean (SD) 3.04 (1.88) 3.36 (1.94) 3.48 (2.12) 3.29 (1.99) 1.800
Organizations

Legend: Denotes significant pairwise two-tailed t-test comparisons at p < 0.05

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

438 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012


Figure 3. Average Career Mobility Across Careers in the IT Workforce
these results suggest that individuals in IT careers are not
bounded by their organization, but remain relatively bounded
within the IT profession.
Individuals in both the PLM (t = 7.64, df = 318, p < 0.001)
and SLM (t = 5.89, df = 351, p < 0.001) careers move more
frequently than those in IT careers. In particular, individuals
in PLM and SLM careers exhibit significantly more
occupation-only mobility than individuals in IT careers.
These results show that individuals in the PLM and SLM
careers are least bounded by their occupations and they
demonstrate frequent occupational mobility within an
organization.8
Timing of Career Mobility
We examined the timing of each type of career mobility using
a repeated measures analysis of variance to test for dif-
8 12 years of their career, and this type of mobility declines
We conducted additional analyses to examine the extent to which
individuals’ mobility into the IT workforce, or to other organizations within
the IT workforce (i.e., organizational turnover) is influenced by general
availability of jobs. We used unemployment rate as a measure of general
availability of jobs as it “is assumed to capture a sample’s relevant job
market” (Trevor 2001, p. 621). We find that a higher unemployment rate is
negatively associated with the probability of mobility across organizations
either into the IT workforce or within the IT workforce. Unemployment rate,
however, is not significantly related to the probability of mobility into the IT
workforce within organizations. This finding suggests that organizational
mobility is more influenced by general availability of job opportunities than
occupational mobility within organizations.
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
ferences in the profiles of career mobility across time. We
found that the average organization only mobility (Wilks’ Λ =
0.97, F(8, 988) = 1.90, ns) and average occupation and organi-
zation mobility (Wilks’ Λ = 0.99, F(8, 988) = 0.53, ns) were not
significantly different from each other over time across career
paths. Our analysis showed that the average organization
only mobility and the average occupation and organization
mobility decreased over time as individuals grow older. This
is consistent with career stage theory (Super 1957), which
argues career exploration typically occurs in the initial stages
of one’s career, and that career exploration decreases over
time.
There were, however, significant differences in the average
occupation only mobility over time across clusters (Wilks’ Λ
= 0.87, F(8, 988) = 8.77, p < 0.001). Figure 4 shows the average
occupation only mobility undertaken by individuals in each
career over time. Individuals in IT careers and PLM careers
tend to change occupations within organizations in the early
stages of their careers. Individuals in PLM careers, in parti-
cular, tend to exhibit occupation-only mobility within the first
steeply thereafter. In contrast, individuals in SLM careers
tend to exhibit consistent occupation-only mobility over time,
even in the last few years of their careers.
Individual Profiles
How do the profiles of individuals differ across career paths?
As noted earlier, prior research has argued and shown that
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 439
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
Figure 4. Timing of Occupation-Only Mobility Across Time
gender and human capital investments are strongly related to
career decisions and career opportunities in the workforce
(Feldman and Ng 2007; Greenhaus et al. 2008; Igbaria and
Chidambaram 1997). We thus profile the individuals within
each career path in terms of their gender and human capital
variables.
Human capital variables examined include education level,
cognitive ability, and declared major in college. Education
Level measured individuals’ highest education attainment on
four levels: (1) high school diploma or its equivalent; (2) high
school diploma with some college education; (3) bachelor’s
degree; and (4) postgraduate degree. Percentile Score on
Cognitive Ability Test was measured using the percentile
score of the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT), which
was administered to the NLSY79 respondents in 1980. The
AFQT percentile score is a composite of four quantitative and
verbal tests: mathematical knowledge, arithmetic reasoning,
paragraph comprehension, and word knowledge (Bureau of
Labor Statistics 2008). This variable tends to be correlated
with educational level, as individuals usually advance to
higher educational levels based on how well they score on
such tests (Mayer 2000).
The NLSY79 also captures data about declared major in
college. IT-related majors recorded in the NLSY79 include
Computer and Information Sciences (code 0701), Information
Sciences and Systems (code 0702), Data Processing (code
0703), Computer Programming (code 0704), Systems
Analysis (code 0705), and Other Computer and Information
440 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
Sciences Major (code 0799). Accordingly, we recoded
individuals’ declared major in college as IT-Related Major or
as Non-IT Related Major.9
Table 6 presents the profile of individuals in each career path.
The IT career is predominantly male (72.8 percent; χ² = 18.58,
df = 2, p < 0.001). Individuals in IT careers are more likely,
compared to individuals in other careers, to have attained a
bachelor’s degree or higher (83.2 percent) and majored in an
IT-related program while in college (61.8 percent). These
individuals also tend to score higher in the cognitive ability
tests (78.48 percentile; F(2, 483) = 33.48, p < 0.001). We label
individuals in IT careers as “IT professionals” as their
individual profile is consistent with the prototypical IT
professional espoused in IT literature (Enns et al. 2006;
Slaughter and Ang 2004; Slaughter et al. 2007).
By comparison, the PLM career is composed of a more
balanced proportion of males and females (male: 55.1 per-
cent; female: 44.9 percent). Like IT professionals, individ-
uals in PLM careers are likely to have attained at least a
bachelor’s degree (79.6 percent) but with more individuals
going on to attain a postgraduate degree (41.5 percent). Indi-
viduals in PLM careers are also as likely to score as well as
individuals in IT careers on cognitive ability tests (at the 72.6
9
Respondents who declared their majors include those with a postgraduate
degree, bachelors’ degree, and those who have high school with some college
education.
 Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Table 6. Individual Profiles of Each Career Path

IT PLM SLM
Sample Career Career Career χ²
N 500 173 147 180
34.6% 29.4% 36.0%
Demographics Male 300 126 81 93 18.58***
Gender 60.0% 72.8% 55.1% 51.7% (df = 2)
Female 200 47 66 87
40.0% 27.2% 44.9% 48.3%
Human Capital Postgraduate 134 57 61 16 113.97***
Education Level Degree 26.8% 32.9% 41.5% 8.9% (df = 6)
Bachelor’s Degree 195 87 56 52
39.0% 50.3% 38.1% 28.9%
High School with 95 21 16 58
Some College 19.0% 12.1% 10.9% 32.2%
High School 76 8 14 54
Diploma 15.2% 4.6% 9.5% 30.0%
IT-Related Major Non-IT-Related 292 66 105 121 45.24***
Major 58.4% 38.2% 71.4% 67.2% (df = 2)
IT-Related Major 208 107 42 59
41.6% 61.8% 28.6% 32.8%
F
Percentile Score on Mean 69.70 78.48 72.60 58.75 33.46***
Cognitive Ability Test SD 24.33 21.90 21.96 24.42 (df = 2, 483)

percentile). Unlike individuals in IT careers, individuals in
PLM careers are less likely to have majored in an IT-related
program in college (28.6 percent IT-related majors).
The SLM career is also composed of equal proportions of
males and females (males: 51.7 percent; females: 48.3 per-
cent), but individuals here have typically attained a lower
education level compared to individuals in the other careers.
Individuals in SLM careers tend to have attained a high
school diploma or its equivalent (30.0 percent) or a high
school diploma with some college education (32.2 percent).
A smaller proportion of individuals in the SLM career have
attained a bachelor’s degree (28.9 percent) compared to the
other two careers. Out of those who attended college, a third
of the individuals (32.8 percent) in the SLM career majored
in an IT-related program in college. Figure 5 summarizes the
key individual profile differences across clusters.
Objective Career Success
1995; Valcour and Ladge 2008). To evaluate whether objec-
tive career success differed across the career paths, we
examine the average real annual pay of individuals in each
career path. We computed the average real annual pay using
a CPI deflator, with 1982-1984 as the base year (Bureau of
Labor Statistics 2006), from individuals’ reported total annual
pay for each year.
Consistent with the characterization of careers in the secon-
dary labor market, individuals in SLM careers obtained the
least average real annual pay ($18,225; SD = $8,615; F(2, 497)
= 31.02, p < 0.001). Comparing the average real annual pay
of IT professionals with individuals in PLM careers, indi-
viduals in IT ($32,281; SD = $18,593) and PLM ($32,530; SD
= $27,773) careers are neither better off nor worse off than
each other in terms of average real annual pay (t = 0.093, df
= 247.87, ns). However, the variance in pay for individuals
in PLM careers is higher than the variance in pay for IT
professionals (Levene’s test for homogeneity of error
variances, F(2, 497) = 13.44, p < 0.001).

The profiles of individuals, their career paths, and the experi- Figure 6 presents the 25th percentile, median, and 75th percen-
ences that individuals gain within their career paths have tile of real annual pay for individuals in each career. It ap-
implications for their objective career success (Judge et al. pears that IT professionals consistently receive moderately

MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 441

Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Figure 5. Individual Profiles Across Careers in the IT Workforce

Legend: The diamond represents the median real annual pay. The upper and lower horizontal bars represent the 75th and 25th percentiles,
respectively, of real annual pay for a given career. Real annual pay was computed using a CPI deflator, with 1982–1984 as the base year.

Figure 6. Objective Career Success Across Careers in the IT Workforce

442 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012


Figure 7. Key Characteristics in Each Career Path
high pay over the course of their careers ($36,690 at the 75th
percentile; $29,152 at the median; and $21,694 at the 25th
percentile). By comparison, individuals in PLM careers are
either better compensated ($38,744 at the 75th percentile), or
less well compensated ($26,277 at the median; and $17,630
at the 25th percentile) in terms of pay received given their
frequent occupational mobility.10
Figure 7 summarizes our findings on the key characteristics
differentiating individuals in each career path, and the
resulting indications of objective career success.
Analyses of Sub-Career Paths
Although the cluster analysis identified three primary career
paths, Aldenderfer and Blashfield (1984, p. 37) suggested the
possibility of second order clusters with higher homogeneity
nested within the larger first order clusters. To explore the
possibility of second order career clusters, we subjected the
career sequences within each primary career path to further
hierarchical and nonhierarchical agglomeration. Our analysis
reveals a more nuanced set of sub-career paths, nested within
the three primary career paths (Appendix). This section
describes the career paths and characteristics of individuals
within these sub-careers.
10
Real annual pay for SLM careers is $22,938 at the 75th percentile, $18,032
at the median, and $12.310 at the 25th percentile.
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
Sub-Career Paths Within the Information
Technology Career
Within the IT career, we find three sub-career paths: (1) tech-
nical IT, (2) managerial IT, and (3) late entry IT careers.
These three sub-career paths differ in terms of the dominance
of various occupations (Table A1 in the Appendix). Tech-
nical IT professionals hold the largest proportion of technical
IT jobs in their work histories compared to individuals in the
managerial IT and late entry IT careers. Technical IT profes-
sionals typically start in technical IT jobs very early in their
careers (23.6 years of age, SD = 2.5 years), right after school
(46 percent) or after a brief spell in non-IT jobs such as
clerical (14 percent); craft, production, and service (13 per-
cent); and technical administration and support (11 percent).11
Thereafter, they tend to stay within the IT profession for the
duration of their careers.
Managerial IT professionals, on the other hand, spend about
a third (36 percent) of their work histories in non-IT
occupations. Their career paths show that many incumbents
experiment with non-IT occupations in early parts of their
career, but they typically enter technical IT jobs by 26.2 years
of age (SD = 5.3 years). These individuals enter IT jobs from
11
Technical administration and support jobs include Computer and Peripheral
Equipment Operators, Key Punch Operators, Data Entry/Data Processing
Machine Repairmen, and Computer/Automated Teller/Office Machine
Repairers.
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 443
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
school, typically after postgraduate education (26 percent) or
from non-IT jobs such as non-IT professional (20 percent);
technical administration and support (16 percent); and non-IT
managerial (12 percent). Thereafter, these individuals remain
within the IT profession and work their way into managerial
IT positions by the latter portions of their careers.
In contrast to the first two subgroups, about two-thirds (66
percent) of the work histories of late entry IT professionals
are in non-IT occupations. Examining their career paths, we
find that these individuals typically transit into the IT profes-
sion from non-IT jobs such as non-IT professional (27
percent); non-IT managerial (12 percent); craft, production,
and service (12 percent); clerical (10 percent); technical
administration and support (10 percent), and sales (10
percent). Individuals in this subgroup move into technical IT
jobs during mid- or late-career (32.1 years in age, SD = 5.9
years) and tend to remain within the IT profession thereafter.
Although there are no significant differences in the demo-
graphics and human capital characteristics of individuals
within the IT sub-careers (Table A2), we found that mana-
gerial IT professionals are paid significantly more ($43,629,
SD = $46,491; F(2, 170) = 16.62, p < 0.001) compared to tech-
nical IT professionals ($29,667, SD = $11,616) and late entry
IT professionals ($24,939, SD = $10,758). In turn, technical
IT professionals have accumulated more IT-specific human
capital and, thus, are compensated significantly more than late
entry IT professionals (t = 2.33, df = 114.47, p < 0.05).
Sub-Career Paths Within the Professional
Labor Market Career
Individuals in PLM careers may be classified into one of two
sub-career paths distinguished by the proportion of their
career spent in non-IT professional jobs such as accounting,
finance, human resources, or engineering (Table A3: 39 per-
cent of career); and non-IT managerial jobs such as a finance
manager, human resource manager, or general manager (29
percent of career). Hence, we name these two sub-career
paths (1) technical PLM career and (2) managerial PLM
career accordingly.
Individuals in these two sub-career paths do not differ signi-
ficantly in their demographics and human capital acquired
(Table A4). Individuals in a managerial PLM career
($38,024, SD = $36,896), however, earn significantly more on
average than individuals in the technical PLM career
($27,801, SD = $15,015; t = 2.14, df = 85.96, p < 0.05).
444 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
Sub-Career Paths Within the Secondary
Labor Market Career
Within the SLM career, we find five sub-career paths:
(1) technical administration and support (TAS) career;
(2) clerical career; (3) craft, production, and service (CPS)
career; (4) military career; and (5) random career. Individuals
in SLM careers appear to be the most heterogeneous, with
significant differences across the five sub-career paths in
terms of proportions of occupations and individual profiles
(Tables A5 and A6). We describe the key differences below.
Individuals in the TAS career tend to work for long periods in
technical administration and support jobs (Table A5: 42 per-
cent) before entering technical IT jobs in the later stages of
their careers. For these individuals, mobility into the IT pro-
fession appears to be an “upgrade” from the technical admin-
istration and support jobs that they have worked in for most
of their careers. Similarly, individuals in clerical (C = 53
percent), CPS (O = 61 percent), and military (Y = 57 percent)
careers tend to work for long periods in their respective
dominant occupations. These individuals enter technical IT
jobs later in their careers, typically about 11 to 14 years after
starting their careers, but tend to stay in technical IT jobs for
about 2 to 3 years. Finally, the individuals in the Random
sub-career path tend to change occupations frequently
(average of 7.9 career moves), and have no dominant occu-
pation. Technical IT jobs appear to be only one of the “stops”
for individuals in this sub-career path.
Individual profiles differ between the career paths. Signifi-
cantly more females are in clerical careers (Table A6: 87 per-
cent) compared to males. In contrast, significantly more
males than females are in CPS (82 percent) and military (77
percent) careers. The gender compositions are balanced in
TAS and Random sub-career paths. Individuals in TAS
careers are more likely to be IT majors (57 percent) compared
to individuals in other sub-career paths. The preceding dif-
ferences in individual profiles appear to arise because indi-
viduals in SLM careers come from different walks of life—
military personnel, blue and white collar workers, and indi-
viduals who do not settle down in any occupation. Despite
their differences, the career outcomes of these individuals are
similar: lower pay when compared to individuals in the IT and
PLM careers.
Discussion
We undertook this study to achieve the following goals:
(1) to identify and describe the contemporary careers of

individuals in the IT workforce; (2) to examine their mobility
across occupations and organizations within their careers;
(3) to differentiate the profiles of individuals associated with
a given career; and (4) to assess the objective career success
associated with contemporary careers. To accomplish these
goals, we compiled a longitudinal data set comprising work
histories of 500 individuals who worked in a full-time IT job
at any point between 1979 and 2006 for at least a year. We
analyzed their work histories using optimal matching, cluster
analyses, and variance analyses.
Career Paths
This study finds that careers in the IT workforce are more
varied than previously thought. Specifically, this study finds
three broad careers paths in the IT workforce: (1) information
technology (IT) career; (2) professional labor market (PLM)
career; and (3) secondary labor market (SLM) career. Within
each of these three broad career paths are specific careers that
vary by the nature of the job and position. Together, these
broad and specific career paths draw attention to a diverse
range of careers that add new insights to the IT careers
research.
IT professionals typically begin their venture into IT right
after college or after a brief spell in a non-IT job. Thereafter,
these IT professionals spend their remaining work histories in
the IT profession. Within the IT career, some IT profes-
sionals choose to remain in technical IT jobs and follow a
technical IT career. Other IT professionals transit from a
series of technical IT jobs into a managerial IT job to pursue
a managerial IT career. The technical IT and managerial IT
careers typify the dual career paths described in the early IT
careers literature (Chesebrough and Davis 1983; Ginzberg
and Baroudi 1988; Kaiser 1983).
Within the sub-career paths in IT, we find support for our
assertion that a dual career path in IT is unduly restrictive.
We uncover a previously undocumented sub-career path: the
late entry IT career. The late entry IT career represents a
group of individuals who spend much of their early careers
outside of IT and undertake a mid-career move into IT. Little
is known about late entry IT professionals. As such, research
examining their attitudes, motivations, and labor market
experiences will complement existing research examining IT
professionals whom organizations move out of IT to “seed the
line” (Reich and Kaarst-Brown 1999, 2003).
Interestingly, only about a third (34.6 percent) of individuals
in our sample adhered to an IT career. The remaining two-
thirds (65.4 percent) of our sample spent brief periods in IT
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
and went on to forge careers outside the IT profession.
The PLM and SLM careers forged by individuals who have
worked in the IT workforce have yet to be documented in the
IT literature. The PLM and SLM careers appear to comprise
individuals who explore the viability of becoming IT
professionals at some point in their work histories.
Individuals in PLM careers explore the viability of an IT job
early in their work histories. After IT, the work histories of
individuals in PLM careers are predominantly in non-IT
professional and managerial jobs. The careers of these indi-
viduals may be further partitioned into two sub-career paths:
(1) technical PLM, for those who stay predominantly in
professional occupations, and (2) managerial PLM, for those
who stay predominantly in managerial occupations. The
career sequences of individuals in PLM careers appear to
resemble those of the ex-IT professionals documented by
Reich and Kaarst-Brown (1999, 2003). Although we do not
have information about their underlying motivations and
decisions to leave the IT profession, the available information
about their job origins and destinations suggests that these
individuals may exemplify a variation of the boundaryless
career—a career where occupations do not pose boundaries
and one where individuals choose to explore different occupa-
tions, typically within the security of their organization.
In comparison, the SLM career represents a group of indi-
viduals who operate predominantly in the secondary labor
market for a large part of their work history. Individuals in
this group are the most heterogeneous of the three broad
career paths. They appear to come from all walks of life
ranging from blue collar workers to clerical staff to military
personnel who are looking for a chance to renew their careers
in the IT profession after leaving military service (e.g., Cisco
Systems Inc. 2008). Indeed, we identified five subgroups of
individuals that clustered along occupational lines: technical
administration and support; clerical; craft, production, and
service; military service; and one subgroup showing no
dominant occupation throughout individuals’ careers. IT jobs
appear in the latter portions of these individuals’ work his-
tories. It could be that these individuals are marginal workers
in the IT profession with different attitudes and motivation.
It is unlikely that these individuals in SLM careers undergo
the same cognitive processes with regard to their careers as
individuals within IT and PLM careers (Hulin et al. 1985).
Career Mobility
In further analyzing the types and timings of career mobility
across careers, we find that the three broad careers are
boundaryless in different ways. Individuals in IT careers tend
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 445
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
to move across organizations but stay within the IT profes-
sion. This finding suggests that IT professionals are not
bounded by their organization but remain relatively bounded
within the IT profession. From a skills transferability
perspective (Becker 1975), IT professionals seem to have
accumulated sufficient IT-specific human capital from the
substantial periods within the IT profession to enable them to
transfer their skills to other organizations while staying within
the IT profession (Mithas and Krishnan 2008).
Interestingly, individuals in both the PLM and SLM careers
change occupations within organizations quite frequently.
This finding suggests that individuals in PLM and SLM
careers are least bounded by occupations but the organization
appears to play a large role in their moves across occupations.
We suspect, however, that the mechanisms facilitating fre-
quent occupational mobility within organizations for indi-
viduals in SLM careers differ from the mechanisms operating
for those in PLM careers.
Individuals in PLM careers tend to make occupation-only
moves in the early part of their careers, likely as part of an
exploration process to find a job with the best fit. IT, there-
fore, seems to be only one stop in this exploration process, as
individuals in PLM careers enter an IT job relatively early in
their career and exit after about two years, typically facilitated
by their employers. It appears that organizations provide the
security and opportunity for these individuals to explore
multiple occupations within an organization, perhaps as part
of a job rotation process (Ortega 2001). The complicity of
employers in facilitating occupational mobility suggests an
internal labor market that is not restricted to traditional
notions of upward mobility or promotions (Doeringer and
Piore 1971; Osterman 1984), but that affords individuals in
PLM careers job security and career opportunities to explore
multiple occupations within their organizations (Reich and
Kaarst-Brown 1999, 2003).
Individuals in SLM careers, on the other hand, make
occupation-only moves throughout their career. It is possible
that these individuals are attached to their organizations and
are willing to take on jobs that their organizations require
them to fill. Entry into IT for individuals in SLM careers
tends to take place in the latter portion of their career, perhaps
due to the increased demand for IT personnel during that
period (Hayes 1998; Moore et al. 2001).
Overall, our results point to the need for future research to
consider different types of career mobility. Much of the
organizational turnover research in the IT and management
disciplines assume that individuals turnover to another organi-
zation within the same occupation (Kirschenbaum and
446 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
Weisberg 2002). In our study, organization only mobility (or
organizational turnover) accounts for only a small fraction of
the three types of mobility observed, although it is highest for
IT professionals.
Individual Profiles
The diverse career paths attract individuals with different
profiles. Individuals in the IT career path match the profile of
the prototypical IT professional portrayed in the IT literature:
male, attained at least a bachelor’s degree with a major in an
IT-related program, and scores highly on cognitive aptitude
tests (Enns et al. 2006; Slaughter and Ang 2004; Slaughter et
al. 2007). In contrast, the prototypical individual in a PLM
career is one who attended college, majored in a non-IT-
related course of study, attained a bachelor’s or postgraduate
degree, and scores as highly on cognitive ability tests as IT
professionals. The prototypical individual in SLM careers,
however, tends to hold comparatively lower education level
and scores lower on cognitive ability tests compared to the
prototypical individuals in IT and PLM careers.
This diversity in the individual profiles in the IT workforce
may have its roots in the severe IT labor imbalances experi-
enced over the last three decades (Ang and Slaughter 2000).
Pressure to fill IT jobs has translated into less concern for
demonstrated experience and more willingness to seek plau-
sible candidates from nontraditional sources (Cisco Systems
Inc. 2008; Kanter 1984; Moore et al. 2001). For example, a
2003 ITAA study found only about 50 percent of the IT work-
force then held an IT-related degree (Information Technology
Association of America 2003a). The multidimensional skill
requirements in the IT profession (e.g., knowledge and skills
in technology, business operations, and interpersonal skills,
Gallivan et al. 2004; Lee et al. 1995) may have led employers
to recruit applicants from a wide variety of disciplinary back-
grounds to fill IT jobs (National Science Foundation 2002).
As a result, the IT workforce includes individuals from a
variety of backgrounds.
There is limited IT research that examines how this diversity
in individuals’ profiles influences the evolution of the career
paths of individuals (Ang and Slaughter 2000). Uncovering
the PLM and SLM career paths is, therefore, significant
because it highlights a long-term implication of the low
barriers to entry into the IT profession. The diversity of
individuals in the IT workforce has translated into significant
heterogeneity in the career paths of individuals who have not
been socialized into the IT profession by majoring in an IT-
related program in college.

Objective Career Success
The diversity of careers, career mobility, and individual pro-
files results in differing career success. Consistent with
human capital theory, individuals in SLM careers received
lower pay because they have not invested as much in
education—an important aspect of human capital. IT pro-
fessionals receive higher pay than those in SLM careers, but
equivalent to individuals in PLM careers, due to having
invested in education and accumulated occupation-specific
human capital. These IT professionals are rewarded for
staying within the IT profession because they continue
leveraging upon and building their IT-specific human capital
(Mithas and Krishnan 2008).
Individuals in PLM careers also receive a similar level of pay,
on average, as IT professionals. This finding is consistent
with established evidence showing the pay of ex-IT
professionals being maintained when ex-IT professionals are
moved out to non-IT jobs by their organizations (Reich and
Kaarst-Brown 1999, 2003). Thereafter, individuals in PLM
careers appear to capitalize on both general and firm-specific
human capital to achieve similar levels of career success as IT
professionals.
There is, however, significant variance in the pay of indi-
viduals in PLM careers. It appears that some individuals in
PLM careers pay a penalty because their frequent mobility
has not enabled them to build significant firm-specific and
occupation-specific human capital. On the other hand, there
is a group of individuals in PLM careers who are managers
for a large proportion of their careers. It also appears that
these individuals are successful in leveraging their general
human capital to propel themselves into key managerial
positions that pay more.
Limitations
Although the data allowed us to examine careers in a longi-
tudinal fashion, we are constrained to the work histories of
one cohort of individuals in the U.S. workforce. Nonetheless,
we believe that our findings would be applicable to under-
standing the careers of other cohorts of individuals currently
in the IT workforce. The turbulent IT environment (Hayes
1998; Information Technology Association of America
2003b) and heterogeneity of individuals’ backgrounds (Infor-
mation Technology Association of America 2003a) remain
unchanging characteristics of the IT workforce from the past
to the present.
The turbulent IT environment arising from the imbalances in
the demand and supply of IT labor (Moncarz et al. 2008;
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
Slaughter and Ang 1996) and from new disruptive tech-
nologies (Joseph et al. 2011) may similarly influence
individuals in other cohorts (in the U.S. or globally) to leave
the IT profession or their organizations. This turbulent
environment, at the same time, provides opportunities for
individuals with varied backgrounds to enter the IT workforce
(e.g., U.S. war veterans; Cisco Systems Inc. 2008). We do
acknowledge, however, that examining a single cohort consti-
tutes a limitation, and further research is required to examine
if the same findings are applicable to different cohorts of
individuals.
Another limitation of our study is that we are unable to
examine the reasons why individuals made specific occupa-
tional or organizational mobility decisions. We are limited by
the missing data on variables in the NLSY79 data set cap-
turing such information. Even though the NLSY79 attempts
to collect reasons for career mobility, only about 9.1 percent
of respondents had answered this set of questions in the last
five waves of data collection (Bureau of Labor Statistics
2008). Future research examining the careers of IT profes-
sionals is encouraged to systematically uncover the reasons
for undertaking specific career mobility decisions.
Implications for Future Research
This study has several implications for IT and for broader
management research. First, expanding the conceptualization
and operationalization of boundaryless careers to include both
organizational and occupational boundaries enriches the cri-
terion space by identifying a more differentiated set of career
mobility. Doing so allows future research to posit more
nuanced theories of boundaryless careers. Prior research ad-
dresses why individuals develop boundaryless careers through
interorganizational mobility (Sullivan and Arthur 2006), but
little is known about whether and why individuals develop
boundaryless careers both across occupations and organi-
zations (Ang and Slaughter 2000).
Expanding the criterion set of boundaryless career mobility
may potentially enrich theories of job and occupation
embeddedness (Feldman and Ng 2007; Mitchell et al. 2001;
Ng and Feldman 2007). It could be that the fit, links, and
sacrifices that one must make to leave an organization are
more costly compared to the fit, links, and sacrifices that one
must make to leave an occupation. If so, then this line of
reasoning may explain why individuals tend to switch into
and out of occupations within their organizations more than
they enact organizational turnover.
The notion that boundaryless careers are formed by both inter-
organizational and interoccupational mobility has important
MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012 447
Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success
implications for human capital theory. Our finding that more
occupational mobility occurs within organizations suggests
that organizations value firm-specific human capital over
occupation-specific human capital. From a skills trans-
ferability perspective (Becker 1975), it appears that firms are
protecting their firm-specific human capital investments by
providing opportunities for individuals to move between
occupations within the organization.
In contrast, IT professionals seem to have accumulated
sufficient IT-specific human capital from the substantial
periods within the IT profession to enable them to transfer
their skills to other organizations while staying within the IT
profession (Mithas and Krishnan 2008). Hence, it is not
surprising that IT professionals who are 42 to 49 years old (as
of 2006) continue to experience organizational mobility where
career theories posit more stability. As our data are right
censored and these individuals have yet to report retirement,
future research could expect to find their careers remain
bounded to the IT profession but not to their organization
until retirement (Jones and McIntosh 2010) and possibly even
after retirement (Maestas 2010).
Second, our study draws attention to previous conceptuali-
zations of turnover as being simplistic. Prior IT research on
organizational turnover often does not consider the destina-
tions of individuals after they leave their IT jobs. With this
study, we provide new evidence that organizational turnover
constitutes only a small proportion of all career mobility. We
advocate that prior IT organizational turnover research should
be revisited by refining the traditional definition of turnover
to examine three conceptually distinct forms of career
mobility: organizational turnover as mobility to similar jobs
across organizational boundaries; turnaway-within as mobility
to other occupations within organizational boundaries; and
turnaway-between as mobility to other occupations across
organizational boundaries. This refinement in the concep-
tualization and operationalization of career mobility, we
believe, brings this study closer to the spirit of the original
meaning of turnover as intended by March and Simon (1958).
Finally, the results from this study imply that prior IT research
on career paths (Chesebrough and Davis 1983; Kaiser 1983;
Tanniru 1983; Zabusky and Barley 1996) appears to have also
held an exclusive definition of IT professionals as individuals
committed to the IT profession and with significant invest-
ments in IT-specific human capital. The newly uncovered
careers in this paper draw attention to the heterogeneity of
individuals in the IT workforce and imply that researchers
should exercise care when selecting IT professionals for
future research. To date, cross-sectional research on IT
personnel is conducted on samples of IT professionals that
448 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
may include individuals who share similar profiles as those in
PLM and SLM careers, even though the intended target
sample is those in IT careers. But clearly, individuals in PLM
and SLM careers are not like individuals in IT careers.
Uncovering these previously undocumented groups in the IT
workforce underlines the importance for future research to
consider individuals’ career decisions within the context of a
longitudinal work history.
Implications for Practice
Our research has several practical implications. First, this
study shows that individuals in the IT workforce are highly
heterogeneous, varying in their backgrounds, educational
qualifications, and subsequently in the career paths they
pursue. It is important, then, for human resource managers
not to regard IT professionals as a homogeneous group, but to
recognize this heterogeneity in managing and developing their
careers.
Second, our research suggests the importance of majoring in
IT-related programs in college as a socialization process that
binds individuals to the IT profession. Those who chose to
major in IT-related programs while in college tended to
persist in an IT career, usually pursuing technical IT or
managerial IT careers. As such, the choice of IT-related
majors as a precursor to a career in the IT profession should
not be overlooked. Non-IT-related majors, on the other hand,
tend to stay in IT jobs for a short while, but eventually leave
IT for other occupations.
Finally, for the individuals in the IT workforce, our findings
suggest that IT professionals may have career alternatives that
are not constrained to the dual career track as suggested by
prior IT careers research (i.e., Chesebrough and Davis 1983;
Kaiser 1983; Tanniru 1983). IT professionals and human
resource managers, in planning IT professionals’ careers,
might consider moving IT professionals valued by the organi-
zation into managerial positions or into line functions. Never-
theless, our study also suggests that there are differential
returns to career paths. In essence, leaving an IT career for a
non-IT job function may leave one either well compensated
in terms of pay received, or may result in receiving much
lower pay than one would otherwise have achieved by staying
within the IT profession.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this study contributes to the literature on career
paths in several ways. One, our study provides a nuanced

understanding of the careers and career experiences of
individuals in the IT workforce. The typology of careers
identified in this study enriches our collective understanding
of the diversity of career paths in the IT workforce. Two, this
study refines the concept of boundaryless careers by
uncovering a diverse set of career mobility that crosses
occupational and organizational boundaries. The diversity of
career mobility types enriches our understanding of how
individuals construct a boundaryless career that spans organi-
zations and occupations. Three, this study highlights the
diversity of individual profiles in the IT workforce. Finally,
our study indicates that career success is associated with the
path traveled, the experiences within the path, and
individuals’ profiles.
Acknowledgments
The authors are deeply grateful to the senior editor, Michael J.
Gallivan, the associate editor, Tom Ferratt, and the four anonymous
reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments. Their
comments and suggestions have greatly improved this paper.
Thanks are also due to colleagues and friends who have commented
on earlier versions of the paper.
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About the Authors
Damien Joseph is an assistant professor of Information Technology
and Management at the Nanyang Technological University
(Singapore) where he received his Ph.D. His research interests are
in the management of technology professionals, examining issues
relating to their careers, compensation, competencies, culture, and
leadership. Damien’s research is published in journals including
MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, and Communications
452 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2/June 2012
of the AIS. Damien is a regular participant at major international
conferences including the International Conference on Information
Systems, Academy of Management Meetings, ACM SIGMIS-CPR
and the Americas Conference on Information Systems, where he has
been nominated for and/or won best paper awards.
Wai Fong Boh is an associate professor at the Nanyang Business
School, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). She
received her Ph.D. from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie
Mellon University. She has been or is currently serving on the
editorial boards of Management Science, Information Systems
Research, Organization Science, Information & Organization, and
Journal of Database Management. She has published in Manage-
ment Science, Organization Science, Academy of Management
Journal, Journal of Management Information Systems, and other
leading journals. She has received numerous awards, including the
2007 Top Five IS Publications, the 2009 Management Science
Distinguished Service Award for Reviewers, and the 2005 Academy
of Management OCIS Best Dissertation Award.
Soon Ang (Ph.D., University of Minnesota), Goh Tjoei Kok Chaired
Professor in Management, heads the Division of Strategy, Manage-
ment & Organization at Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
in Singapore. She is currently a senior editor of MIS Quarterly, and
past senior editor of Information Systems Research and Journal of
the Association for Information Systems. She publishes extensively
in Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems
Research, Organization Science, Communications of the
ACM, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied
Psychology, and other leading journals. She has received Best Paper
awards from SIGMIS, HICCS, and the Academy of Management.
She is a recognized world authority in cultural intelligence (CQ),
global leadership, and outsourcing. She was recently awarded the
Public Administrative Medal (Silver) from the President of the
Republic of Singapore; and has received the Distinguished
Leadership Award for International Alumni from the University of
Minnesota and the Nanyang Award for Research and Innovation, the
highest recognition on outstanding research given by NTU.
Sandra A. Slaughter (Ph.D., University of Minnesota), is the Alton
M. Costley Chair and Professor of Information Technology
Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her thesis won
first place in the doctoral dissertation competition held by the
International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in 1995.
Since then, she has gone on to publish over 90 articles in leading
research journals, conference proceedings, and edited books. Her
work has received seven best paper awards at major conferences.
Her research has been supported by grants from the National
Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and Research
Centers at Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon University, and the
University of Minnesota. She was awarded the Xerox Research
Chair at Carnegie Mellon University in 1998. She currently serves
as a departmental editor for Management Science (Information
Systems Department), and has served as a senior editor or associate
editor for other leading journals.
 RESEARCH ARTICLE

THE CAREER PATHS LESS (OR MORE) TRAVELED:

A SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF IT CAREER HISTORIES,
MOBILITY PATTERNS, AND CAREER SUCCESS
Damien Joseph, Wai Fong Boh, and Soon Ang
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, SINGAPORE 639798
{adjoseph@ntu.edu.sg} {awfboh@ntu.edu.sg} {asang@ntu.edu.sg}

Sandra A. Slaughter
College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30303-0520 U.S.A.
{Sandra.slaughter@mgt.gatech.edu}

Appendix
Tables Presenting Information on Sub-Career Paths
Sub-Career Paths Within the IT Career

Table A1. Proportions of Jobs Within Sub-Career Paths of the IT Career†

IT Careers
Proportion of Jobs Technical IT Career Late Entry IT Career Managerial IT Career F(2, 170)
IT Jobs
I 72.3% 34.5% 38.0% 112.15***
M 26.4% 219.72***
Non-IT Jobs
G 0.9% 5.4% 2.3% 10.52***
P 1.6% 13.9% 5.1% 20.76***
C 2.1% 7.4% 3.7% 7.02***
J 1.6% 3.2% 2.3% 0.69
O 2.6% 9.7% 4.0% 11.90***
S 1.4% 3.5% 1.1% 3.68*
T 0.1% 3.1% 0.8% 13.02***
Out of Civilian Workforce
U 0.9% 0.3% 0.1% 2.34
X 14.2% 15.4% 14.9% 0.17
Y 1.0% 2.4% 0.8% 1.30
Z 1.3% 1.1% 0.5% 0.73
†
See Table 2 for detailed meanings of codes. I: Technical IT job; M: Managerial IT; C: Clerical; G: Non-IT Manager; J: Technical Admin &
Support; O: Craft, Production, and Service; P: Non-IT Professional; S: Sales; T: Technician; U: Unemployed; X: In School; Y: Military Service;
Z: Out of Workforce.
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2—Appendix/June 2012 A1

Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Table A2. Demographics of Individuals in Sub-Career Paths Within the IT Career

IT Careers
Technical IT Late Entry IT Managerial IT
Career Career Career χ²
N 71 52 50
41.0% 30.1% 28.9%
Demographics Male 50 41 35 1.36
Sex 70.4% 78.8% 70.0% (df = 2)
Female 21 11 15
29.6% 21.2% 30.0%
Human Capital Postgraduate Degree 17 19 21 12.22
Education 23.9% 36.5% 42.0% (df = 6)
Bachelor’s Degree 39 22 26
54.9% 42.3% 52.0%
High School with Some 12 6 3
College 16.9% 11.5% 6.0%
High School Diploma 3 5 0
4.2% 9.6% 0.0%
IT-Related Major Non-IT-Related Major 21 25 20 4.46
29.6% 48.1% 40.0% (df = 2)
IT-Related Major 50 27 30
70.4% 51.9% 60.0%
F
Percentile Score on Mean 81.11 72.03 81.56 3.27*
Cognitive Ability Test SD 19.03 27.13 18.20 (df = 2, 165)

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

Sub-Career Paths Within the PLM Career

Table A3. Proportions of Jobs Within Sub-Career Paths of the PLM Career
PLM Careers
Proportion of Jobs Technical PLM Career Managerial PLM Career F(1, 145)
IT Jobs
I 13.1% 12.5% 0.07
M 0.2% 1.16
Non-IT Jobs
G 6.4% 29.1% 114.19***
P 39.2% 13.7% 86.29***
C 8.3% 12.0% 2.75
J 0.9% 0.7% 0.13
O 6.4% 5.6% 0.24
S 2.6% 6.7% 6.93*
T 4.2% 3.5% 0.17
Out of Civilian Workforce
U 0.4% 0.7% 1.21
X 16.2% 11.8% 5.43*
Y 0.6% 0.6% 0.00
Z 1.8% 2.8% 0.67
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

A2 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2—Appendix/June 2012

 Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Table A4. Demographics of Individuals in Sub-Career Paths Within the PLM Career
PLM Careers
Technical PLM Managerial PLM
Career Career χ²
N 79 68
53.7% 46.3%
Demographics Male 44 37 0.02
Sex 55.7% 54.4% (df = 1)
Female 35 31
44.3% 45.6%
Human Capital Postgraduate Degree 39 22 6.85
Education 49.4% 32.4% (df = 3)
Bachelor’s Degree 29 27
36.7% 39.7%
High School with Some 7 9
College 8.9% 13.2%
High School Diploma 4 10
5.1% 14.7%
IT-Related Major Non-IT-Related Major 55 50 0.27
69.6% 73.5% (df = 1)
IT-Related Major 24 50
30.4% 26.5%
F
Percentile Score on Mean 73.32 71.78 0.18
Cognitive Ability Test SD 21.91 22.15 (df = 1, 143)

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

Table A5. Proportions of Jobs Within Sub-Career Paths of the SLM Career
SLM Careers
Technical
Admin & Clerical Craft, Prod Military Random
Proportion of Jobs Support Career & Service Career Career F(4, 175)
IT Jobs
I 197% 14.2% 13.5% 13.4% 14.5% 2.52*
M 0.2% 1.37
Non-IT Jobs
G 2.0% 5.1% 2.4% 1.0% 6.4% 3.96**
P 0.5% 4.1% 1.8% 0.4% 6.7% 11.39***
C 9.6% 52.8% 3.1% 3.5% 14.4% 99.16***
J 42.0% 3.0% 1.6% 4.0% 1.4% 107.25***
O 12.0% 6.1% 60.9% 8.9% 21.6% 90.17***
S 0.5% 3.5% 2.5% 1.9% 6.6% 4.28**
T 1.6% 1.6% 3.9% 6.0% 9.2% 3.89**
Out of Civilian Workforce
U 0.5% 0.8% 1.5% 0.5% 1.8% 1.65
X 5.6% 5.2% 4.5% 3.6% 10.5% 3.15*
Y 4.9% 1.0% 2.8% 56.5% 1.3% 193.24***
Z 0.9% 2.6% 1.6% 0.5% 5.6% 3.00*
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2—Appendix/June 2012 A3

Joseph et al./IT Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Success

Table A6. Demographics of Individuals in Sub-Career Paths Within the SLM Career
SLM Careers
Technical Craft,
Admin & Clerical Prod & Military Random
Support Career Service Career Career χ²
N 28 45 27 22 58
15.6% 25.0% 15.0% 12.2% 32.2%
Demographics Male 15 6 22 17 33 42.54***
Sex 53.6% 13.3% 81.5% 77.3% 56.9% (df = 4)
Female 13 39 5 5 25
46.4% 86.7% 18.5% 22.7% 43.1%
Human Capital Postgraduate 0 3 1 1 11 21.15*
Education Degree 0.0% 6.7% 3.7% 4.5% 19.0% (df = 12)
Bachelor’s 7 12 7 5 21
Degree 25.0% 26/7% 25.9% 22.7% 36.2%
High School with 12 12 8 10 16
Some College 42.9% 26.7% 29.6% 45.5% 27.6%
High School 9 18 11 6 10
Diploma 32.1% 40.0% 40.7% 27.3% 17.2%
IT-Related Major Non-IT-Related 12 33 21 16 39 9.98*
Major 42.9% 73.3% 77.8% 72.7% 67.2% (df = 4)
IT-Related Major 16 12 6 6 19
57.1% 26.7% 22.2% 27.3% 32.8%
F
Percentile Score on Mean 52.59 51.35 58.27 63.00 65.73 2.80*
Cognitive Ability Test SD 24.09 23.27 21.33 21.26 26.34 (df = 4, 168)

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

A4 MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2—Appendix/June 2012